Summary

Michael decides to visit the Struthof-Natzweiler concentration camp, the concentration camp nearest to his town. He hikes and hitchhikes toward the camp. He gets a ride from an older man who extemporizes on the reasons individual Nazis murdered the Jews. The man says they didn't hate the Jews - in fact they were completely indifferent to the Jews - it was just their job. They wanted to finish their job so they could go home. Michael asks the man if he had shot Jews and the man becomes enraged and forces Michael to leave the car. Michael walks the rest of the way to the prison camp.

Analysis

The driver is clearly an older Nazi soldier. He talks about a photograph showing a Nazi officer overseeing the execution of Jews. The Nazi in the photograph is somewhat morose, but also somewhat satisfied and even happy that he...